1.1 From the Foundation of the World
January 2008
References:
Who Is God?
How Do We Know God?
The Council in Heaven
The Lamb of God
The Everlasting Covenant
1. The term A
Godhead@
is used: Acts 17:29; Rom 1:20; Col 2:9
2. Father, Son and Holy Ghost
are named in the following verses:
*
A
And Jesus, when he
was baptized, went up
straightway out of the
water: and, lo, the heavens
were opened unto him, and he
saw the Spirit of God
descending like a dove,
and lighting upon him: And
lo a voice from heaven,
saying, This is my
beloved Son, in whom I
am well pleased@
(Matthew 3:16, 17).
* A Baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost@ (Matthew 28:19-20).
* A I (Jesus) have not spoken in secret from the beginning; from the time that it was, there am I: and now the Lord GOD, and his Spirit, hath sent me@ (Isaiah 48:16).
* @ ... No man speaking by the Spirit of God calleth Jesus accursed: and that no man can say that Jesus is the Lord, but by the Holy Ghost@@ (1 Corinthians 12:3-4).
* A The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Ghost, be with you all. Amen@ (2 Corinthians 13:14)
* A For through him (Jesus) we both have access by one Spirit unto the Father@ (Ephesians 2:18).
* A For there are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost @ (1 John 5:7).
3. Summaries of the thoughts of the church fathers about the Trinity:
Canale, Fernando: Doctrine of God. Handbook of Seventh-day Adventist Theology. p. 140 - 151.
God is known through observations of Nature and through special revelation. God is presented in special revelation through the Bible. This revelation has progressed through history, culminating in the incarnation of Jesus Christ. In general revelation, God is revealed through His work of creation and through the events of history. Our present day revelation through Nature has been tainted by the anti-God bias of many in the scientific community. Thus, a correct understanding of nature requires a knowledge of God provided by the Bible. Canale, Fernando: Doctrine of God. Handbook of Seventh-day Adventist Theology. p. 106
Some will ask, Does God in reality even exist? Aside from the experience of Israel at Mt. Sinai and the incarnation, life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, God has not revealed Himself in a direct and visible way. Our knowledge of Him must then come from His self-revelation in the Bible and by the prompting of the Holy Spirit in the mind. Thus, faith in God is not produced by rational arguments as much as by a personal relationship with Him.
Even a person of faith cannot fully realize the reality of God within the range of his human, finite, and limited reason.
In Creation, God created orders of life apart from Himself. This Creation did not require matter or energy outside of Himself (evolution), yet His Creation was not an extension of Himself (pantheism). The Divine power shown in Creation has continued to operate to sustain all created life (Neh. 9:6; Col. 1:17).
There are two schools of thought regarding eternity. In Greek philosophy eternity is the total absence of time and anything related to time. In the Biblical record the eternity of God is not alien to our time. God= s time is qualitatively different from our time, not in that it denies time but in that it both integrates and surpasses it. For instance, humans (particularly after sin) are transient, while God experiences time without being transient.
As human beings we need time and space to organize our lives. While it is true that God does not have a beginning, does He not have a history? Angels as created beings have a beginning and a history. This earth also had a beginning, suggesting that the universe as we observe it also had a beginning and a history. The Plan of Salvation was decided A before the foundation of the world@ (Eph. 1:4) assuming a time before Creation. The Plan of Salvation was A hidden for ages in God who created all things@ (Eph. 3:9) indicates a past eternity involving time as characteristic of God= s eternity. Having said all this, God= s eternity includes and totally surpasses the entire realm of our created history (ibid 106-118). Canale, Fernando: Doctrine of God. Handbook of Seventh-day Adventist Theology. p. 106 - 118.
5. In Heavenly Council an agreement was reached on what was the A will of God.@6
A Sacrifice
and offering thou
didst not desire;
mine ears hast thou
opened: burnt
offering and sin
offering hast thou
not required.
7
A Then said
I, Lo, I come: in
the volume of the
book it is written
of me,
8
A I
delight to do thy
will, O my God: yea,
thy law is within my
heart.
9
A I have
preached
righteousness in the
great congregation:
lo, I have not
refrained my lips, O
LORD, thou knowest.
10
A I have not
hid thy
righteousness within
my heart; I have
declared thy
faithfulness and thy
salvation: I have
not concealed thy
loving kindness and
thy truth from the
great congregation@
(Psalms 40:6-10; see
also Hebrews 10:7).
A The terms of this oneness between God and man in the great covenant of redemption were arranged with Christ from all eternity. The covenant of grace was revealed to the patriarchs. The covenant made with Abraham four hundred and thirty years before the law was spoken on Sinai was a covenant confirmed by God in Christ, the very same gospel which is preached to us. "The Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the heathen through faith preached before the gospel unto Abraham, saying, In thee shall all nations be blessed. So then they which be of faith are blessed with faithful Abraham." The covenant of grace is not a new truth, for it existed in the mind of God from all eternity. This is why it is called the everlasting covenant. The plan of redemption was not conceived after the fall of man to cure the dreadful evil; the apostle Paul speaks of the gospel, the preaching of Jesus Christ, as "the revelation of the mystery, which hath been kept in silence through times eternal, but now is manifested, and by the Scriptures of the prophets, according to the commandment of the eternal God, is made known unto all the nations unto obedience of faith@ (Rom. 16:25, 26, A.R.V.).
Signs of the Times, August 24: 1891
A God so loved the world, that He gave His only-begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life." Christ was not alone in making His great sacrifice. It was the fulfillment of the covenant made between Him and His Father before the foundation of the world was laid. With clasped hands they had entered into the solemn pledge that Christ would become the surety for the human race if they were overcome by Satan's sophistry. A The salvation of the human race has ever been the object of the councils of heaven. The covenant of mercy was made before the foundation of the world. It has existed from all eternity, and is called the everlasting covenant.@
White, Ellen G.: The Faith I Live By, p. 76.
7. The Lamb slain from the foundation of the world, before Creation:
A the Lamb
slain from the
foundation of the
world.@
Revelation 13:8 KJV
A the Lamb
that was slain from
the creation of the
world.@
Rev. 13:8 NIV
A the Lamb
that was slain [in
sacrifice] from the
foundation of the
world.@
Rev.13:8 AMP
A ... for thou
wast slain, and hast
redeemed us to God
by thy blood.@
Rev. 5:6-9
A Worthy is
the Lamb that was
slain to receive
power, and riches,
and wisdom, and
strength, and
honour, and glory,
and blessing.@
Revelation 5:12 KJV
A Who
(Christ, the Lamb)
verily was
foreordained before
the foundation of
the world, but was
manifest in these
last times for you,@
1 Peter 1:20 KJV
A inherit the
kingdom prepared for
you from the
foundation of the
world:@
Matthew 25:34
Comment:
A From the foundation of the world may be connected with either A written@ or A slain.@ Both ideas are supported in the Bible. That names are recorded from the foundation of the world is found in Rev. 17:8; Matthew 25:34 and Eph. 1:4. Then, the idea that the Lamb was slain from the foundation of the world is closely related to Peter= s statement, A ... as of a lamb without blemish ... who verily was foreordained before the foundation of the world@ (1 Peter 1:19, 20). Seventh-day Adventist Bible Commentary, vol. 7, p. 819.8. Sin is forgiven and cleansed by the blood of the Lamb.
Isa. 44:22 I have blotted out as a thick cloud, thy transgressions, and ... thy sins:
Jer. 31:34 for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.
Jer. 33:8 I will pardon all their iniquities,....and I will cleanse them from all their iniquity,
Daniel 8:14 Unto two thousand and three hundred days; then shall the sanctuary be cleansed.
1 John 1:9 He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from....
Heb. 10:17 And their sins and iniquities will I remember no more.
These (specific repetitions of the) covenants are each called A an everlasting covenant@ because they are all expressions of the greater, primordial everlasting covenant of love that existed from eternity past within the Trinity and from the Trinity toward all creation. While each had its own unique fingerprint, each bore the essential nature of the archetypical everlasting covenant. Each was an expression of the everlasting covenant perfectly adapted to the needs of the people to which it was addressed. And embedded in each can be seen the eternal truths that God was progressively revealing throughout history.@ MacCarty S: A Ingranite or Ingrained?@ Andrews University Press, Berrien Springs, MI., 7.
A It is fair to say that there is a single covenant tradition in the Old Testament. It is developed in various dimensions and over a long period of time, but always it is rooted in the saving relationship God has established with his people. While there are several covenants, each in its own way fills in only a part of the whole picture of God= s covenant with Israel and each of these theological covenants partakes of the same essential character.@ Rayburn R: A The Contrast Between the Old and New Covenants in the New Testament@ (PhD thesis, University of Aberdeen, 1978), 27
Comment:
The above authors are
unanimous is saying that
there is just one basic
covenant. There is some
confusion as to the place of
the other
A covenants@
in the Bible. Blazen
pictures these as
restatements of the
everlasting covenant, which
I think is nearest to the
truth. These
A specific covenants@
(MacCarty), or
A several or
theological covenants@
(Rayburn) are described by
these authors as valid
covenants. The problem with
these is that these
A covenants@
were not formally
established and were not
separately confirmed or
ratified as was the
everlasting covenant. (The
exception is the historic
A old covenant@
which was temporary in
nature).
10. Heppenstall
The tragic mistake of Israel was that they came to regard the covenant as a juridical relationship, a legal transaction. The fundamental reality of God's covenant is that men enjoy the favor and blessing of God irrespective of their past, without discharging any formal debt or performing any special work to secure the favors of God irrespective of their past. Grace and truth do not come through legislation.
Mrs. White states that "the covenant that God made with His people at Sinai is to be our refuge and defense," and that it is of "just as much force to-day as it was when the Lord made it with ancient Israel."'[Ellen G. White in The Southern Watchman, March 1, 1902, p. 142] Why, then, is the Sinaitic covenant called the "old covenant"?
The Old Testament knows nothing about covenants in the plural. The word is always found in the singular. There is constant reference to one covenant designated by God as my covenant," "his covenant," phrases that occur throughout the Bible.
"God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself.' . . . Adam, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Moses understood the gospel. They looked for salvation through man's Substitute and Surety. These holy men of old held communion with the Saviour who was to come to our world in human flesh; and some of them talked with Christ and heavenly angels face to face. . . . Jesus was the light of His people . . . .before He came to earth in the form of humanity." [Ellen G. White, Patriarchs and Prophets, pp. 365-367]The word covenant is used almost 250 times in the Old Testament. Seven times it is used with reference to the covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; 74 times miscellaneously to covenants in human relationships; and 159 times directly to the Sinaitic covenant.
Heppenstall, Edward: Collected Papers. Andrews University Library.
11. The term A My Covenant@ is found 51 times in the King James Bible, two of these in the New Testament. This term carefully defined refers to the covenant made A before the foundation of the world@ in council within the Godhead. It was not a covenant made with man, rather it was a covenant given to man.
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